Page 116 of Fool Me

FORTY-THREE

ATLAS

Two months pass in the blink of an eye. We switch where we sleep based on our schedules and the animals, but we never sleep apart—not since the car accident, and if I have anything to say about it, never again.

Some things haven’t changed. Muley is still obsessed with Harlowe and still biting me—I can’t blame her on the first part.

Today, though, she’s cooperating. Her ears are perked, tail swishing, and there’s something proud in the way she clomps along beside me, like she knows what’s about to happen.

It’s late afternoon and Harlowe is training Echo beyond the pen on her day off. Her hair’s braided, her cheeks pink from the wind. She recalls Echo and I wave her over.

Muley brays as she approaches.

She kisses me once and moves on to the donkey like I knew she would, giving her scratches. It’s a second before her hands freeze on the side of Muley’s neck.

She looks up at me, her lips parted.

Hanging from a thin strip of worn leather is a small silver key.

“I want to know you make it home safe every night,” I say, voice lower than I mean it to be. “I want to wake up withyou every morning—see those moments of peace before the day starts. Be there for the triumphs, or when you have nightmares from the bad days.”

She stares at me, but I keep going.

“Move in with us, Harlowe. Make Muley the happiest donkey in the world and let her best friend be her roommate.” Echo barks and I grin. “I think that’s a yes from him.”

She lets out a breathless laugh, hands covering her mouth. “Are you serious?”

“I’ve never been more sure about anything,” I say. “You’re my forever.”

She walks straight to me and kisses me like she’s already home—her arms around my neck, the key swinging between us as Muley huffs and turns his back on us in what I’m choosing to believe is a blessing.

“Maybe with you here, she’ll stop biting me.”

She laughs into my chest.

“Is that a yes?” I murmur.

She kisses me again. “It’s a hell yes, Atlas.”

EPILOGUE

HARLOWE

I hear the crunch of gravel before I see the truck pull up. I call Echo and walk back to where Phantom is parked just as Atlas stops on the shoulder. He’s not in scrubs like I expect him to be. Instead, he’s got on a pair of joggers and a hoodie.

“Very casual, even for you, Doc,” I say when he steps out with a pizza box from Gondoughla. It’s been a year since we shared our first pizza in his office.

And he’s still hot enough to stop me in my tracks.

“I played hooky this afternoon.” That grabs my attention. Atlas added another vet to the practice—a large animal vet that specializes in bovine and equine care. Since Dr. Millie Brooks joined Mountain View, things have been busy.

“And what did you do with your free time?” I ask curiously as he follows me away from the side of the road and into the field where Echo and I have been working together for hours.

“Let me feed you first and then I’ll show you.” There’s a playful chord to his voice that makes me giddy to learn what he’s been up to.

“Very suspicious,” I tease as I sit down on the blanket that’s been our resting spot between our scent detection exercises.

“No mushrooms, but you have your EpiPen, right?”

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